


Pick of the Two

by ZDcookie_996



Series: Paddock Baby [3]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Baby Ricciardo, Competitive Bosses, Fluff, M/M, cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-16 07:27:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21504112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZDcookie_996/pseuds/ZDcookie_996
Summary: Max and Daniel bring Baby Charlotte to a race which leads to some competitiveness between their bosses as they fight for the baby's attention.
Relationships: Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen
Series: Paddock Baby [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538881
Comments: 12
Kudos: 66





	Pick of the Two

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AnaMachado](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnaMachado/gifts).



> This is the second prompt for my series. This is completely separate from my first story on Max and Daniel. This story is set in Monaco where Baby Charlotte is brought to the track. She is 6 months old and has recently started crawling. Christian and Cyril fight for the baby's attention as the young Ricciardo baby is just so adorable, you can't not love her. This mainly focuses on Charlotte and the drivers' bosses with reference to who could be Charlotte's favourite uncle. I hope you enjoy this story and if anyone has any pairings they would like to see with a baby, please let me know!

Max was glad when he managed to get through the paddock and into the Red Bull motorhome. Whilst Charlotte was safely sleeping in her baby carrier, it wasn't the first time she was at the paddock and so Max was still getting used to all the press who were desperate to get pictures of the cute little baby. Max had purposefully left early alongside Emily, Charlotte's babysitter, in order to try and avoid the crowds. However, this was Monaco so it was always going to be chaotic. Thankfully, he and Daniel lived close to the track so it wouldn't take forever to get home. He settled the baby carrier on a table whilst Emily sat down in a chair nearby, putting the baby bag on the floor. Max was just messaging his trainer, Jake, to let him know he was here when Christian arrived. 

"Hey, I see you've brought a certain someone along." He said, softly.

Max smiled.

"Yeah, she's asleep for the moment. Only a baby could sleep through all the chaos of the paddock." Max chuckled.

Christian frowned.

"Well if you have any bother, let me know and we'll get it sorted."

Max nodded.

"I will, thank you." He said, gratefully.

He introduced Emily to Christian again although they had met briefly before. They were interrupted by a whine from the baby carrier. Max lifted Charlotte into his arms before she could get upset. Christian smiled at her as he stroked her cheek.

"Were we disturbing you? I'm sorry. Do you remember me? Uncle Christian. You're getting so big now." He cooed. 

The trio laughed as Charlotte let out a gurgle and tried to grab onto Christian's fingers. They were interrupted by the appearance of Max's engineers who were looking for their driver ahead of FP1. As Monaco was a street circuit and normal cars used the roads, FP1 and FP2 were held on Thursdays and drivers were given Fridays off. The engineers apologised for intruding but wished to go over data before the start of practice. Christian left them to it and grinned to himself when he looked back and saw Max kissing Charlotte's head before handing her over to Emily. Max had previously said to Emily that she could go and see Daniel before the start of FP1 if he wasn't too busy in the garage. When she was left alone with Charlotte, she took the baby over to the Renault motorhome. Thankfully, Daniel was there with his boss, Cyril. Daniel's back was facing Emily so it was Cyril who alerted the Aussie to Emily's presence. He beamed and opened his arms out for his daughter who cuddled into his chest.

"Who's daddy's favourite girl?" He asked.

He lifted her above his head and laughed as she giggled. He brought her down and kissed her cheek a few times before he cuddled her close. 

"Max said I could come over before the start of practice, I hope that's alright." Emily checked. 

Daniel smiled and nodded as he gazed down at his daughter. His smile brightened as Cyril reached out to hold Charlotte's hand in his.

"Bonjour petite madame." Said Cyril, quietly.

Charlotte seemed to frown at the Frenchman. She had spent more time with Christian in comparison to Cyril so she knew him better. Daniel couldn't be certain when his boss had actually met his daughter but he laughed at her facial expression.

"Give her some time. She's not sure about Nico either." Daniel said.

When it was time for Daniel to get ready for practice, he kissed Charlotte's forehead and passed her back to Emily. He laughed brightly when he waved at his daughter and got a small, flappy wave in return. Emily headed back to Red Bull to watch the practice. When it came to lunchtime, ahead of second practice, she ate on her own and attempted to feed Charlotte who was fussing. As a last resort she went to go and look for Max. At any previous race that Emily had been to with Charlotte, she ate with other Red Bull workers and away from Max so that he wouldn't be distracted by his daughter. However, this was one of those few occasions where Charlotte would refuse to eat unless she was being fed by at least one of her parents. Emily carried Charlotte on her hip and held the milk bottle in her other hand. Max had actually finished his lunch by the time Emily found him. He gave her a concerned look. She shook her head to cast away any concerns.

"I'm sorry but she's refusing to take her bottle. I was wondering if you would try." Emily explained.

Max held his arms out and Charlotte was placed into them. He sat her sideways on his lap and she rested her head on her dad's shoulder. There was no resistance when Max took the bottle off of Emily and began to feed her. 

"Are you trying to be difficult today, Lottie?" Max whispered.

Charlotte looked up into her father's eyes and Max knew he couldn't refuse her anything or tell her no when she looked like that. He was very much in love with her. Emily just shook her head at Charlotte's behaviour. 

"Little madame." She murmured. 

Christian turned up when Max had finished feeding Charlotte and he offered to take her around the garage before the start of second practice. The baby studied everything with wide eyes and wanted to touch everything which reminded Christian of her dads who were curious about everything. She made grabby hands in her dad's direction when she noticed he was standing with his engineers beside the car.

"You'll see him after, we can't distract papa, can we?" Christian murmured softly.

He took her over to the pitwall and let her stand on what was his usual chair as he kept a tight hold of her. She gurgled and pointed to the buttons.

"Wow! Buttons!" Cooed Christian.

He eventually took her back to Emily in the motorhome but not before grabbing an old steering wheel for her to play with. The six month old spent most of second practice either asleep of sitting in Emily's lap waving the steering wheel up and down. She was barely even interested in the TV screens showing her dads. Emily kept Charlotte entertained after the days work had been through as Max would go to debrief ahead of qualifying on Saturday. By the time Max was finished, Charlotte was fussing again in Emily's lap but settled immediately when she was cradled in Max's arms. They headed over to the Renault motorhome so they could walk out with Daniel. Max was carrying his baby in his arms as Emily took the bag and baby carrier as Charlotte had nearly started crying when they tried to put her in it. Daniel was speaking to Nico and Cyril when the trio arrived. He beamed at them and spoke quietly as Charlotte had her head resting on Max's shoulder, slowly falling asleep. 

"How's she been?" He questioned.

"She practically has everyone wrapped around her little finger, she's definitely a Verstappen." Emily responded.

The Renault drivers laughed as Max turned to mock glare at Emily. He ended up rolling his eyes and rubbing his hand up and down Charlotte's back.

Daniel reached out and stroked a finger down his daughter's nose, letting out a chuckle at the grumble he got in response.

"We should get the little one home to bed." He stated.

They all said a quiet goodbye to each other as Daniel, Max and Emily left the paddock with Charlotte sleeping in her papa's arms.

When it came to Saturday, Emily arrived at the circuit with Max and Charlotte but headed to Renault first thing instead of Red Bull as Daniel had arrived early to the track. She bumped into Cyril first. He grinned and waved at Charlotte but then frowned as he noticed she was dressed in Red Bull colours.

"Why is she wearing Red Bull clothes? Is she saving the Renault clothes for the race tomorrow?" He questioned.

"Max won't let her dress as a banana plus she seems to like the colour blue better." Replied Emily.

Cyril looked puzzled.

"Banana?" 

"Charlotte's not a fan of bananas." A voice called out.

The baby grinned happily as she caught sight of her dad and started to wriggle in Emily's arms.

Cyril turned around to face his driver. 

"We do have Renault clothes for her but she won't wear them and Max calls us the banana crew but this little rascal won't touch them. No. You don't like bananas do you, Charlie? No and daddy is one big banana." Daniel cooed as he stroked her cheek.

The adults laughed as Charlotte beamed at her dad. Another voice interrupted them as one of Daniel's engineer's called out that he was needed. 

"Daddy has to go into the car, buttercup so I'll see you later." He said and leaned down to kiss her temple.

The baby pouted and her dad pouted back at her.

"I know it's not fair is it?" He teased as he tickled her.

He quickly made a run for it as Charlotte continued to laugh at her father's antics. Cyril turned back to the girls as he knew he had to get on with the day himself. 

"We all need to get on I'm afraid, so we'll see you later. Au revoir, Charlotte." Said Cyril, softly.

He gave the baby a little wave and laughed as she looked reluctant to wave back. Emily tried to hold back a laugh as she raised Charlotte's hand to wave back at Cyril. She left and headed back to Red Bull. Later on once final practice and qualifying had been over with, Emily found herself with a hyper baby who refused to sit still and started to put her crawling ability to good use. Daniel had come over to Red Bull to congratulate his boyfriend on 3rd position and so here he was standing in conversation with Max, Christian and Emily whilst holding Charlotte. After a while, the baby grew restless and wiggled around in Daniel's arms before trying to stretch down as if she wanted to be placed onto the floor. He carefully put her down and the adults watched with careful eyes as she started crawling around the motorhome.

"I'm sure this time yesterday, she was exhausted and now she's hyper as anything." Said Christian, joking.

"She has Ricciardo blood, she can't sit still." Responded Max. 

The two parents were lucky that Emily was walking around the back of Charlotte to keep an eye on her. So when Cyril entered the front of the motorhome, she crawled in the opposite direction of him. Daniel let out a nervous laugh at the sight of his boss.

"Debrief?" He questioned.

Cyril nodded.

"We're about to start soon." 

He smiled and knelt down as he noticed that Charlotte was looking him.

"Come here, Charlotte. Come to Uncle Cyril." He called.

The baby looked at him and then crawled in the direction of her parents before she stopped again and just sat on the floor, chewing on her fingers. Christian laughed.

"She's not going to go to you when you're wearing yellow, Cyril. She's a Verstappen. She's more likely to come to me than to you as well." He challenged.

"There is Ricciardo blood in her too which means if she did go to you first she wouldn't last long because she can't sit still." Cyril shot back.

"We'll put it to the test then." Answered Christian.

He got down to his knees as well and held his arms out as he called out to Charlotte.

"Come here, Charlotte. Come to your favourite uncle." 

Cyril started up again trying to encourage the baby to come in his direction. She looked back and forward between the pair and eventually made up her mind by turning around and sitting next to Emily's feet, letting out a high pitched squeal as she looked up at the brunette. Daniel let out a loud laugh as the bosses got up to their feet sheepishly whilst Emily picked up Charlotte from the floor.

"She's being impartial." Joked Emily.

"Such a cheeky Charlie." Responded Daniel.

"I told you not to call her that." Grumbled Max.

"You love it." Replied Daniel, cheekily as he patted Max on the cheek who batted away his hand.

A cough interrupted his fun.

"Right, debrief." Daniel replied in a fluster.

He kissed Max on the cheek, then Charlotte before bolting out of the motorhome ahead of Cyril. The Renault boss looked back at Christian.

"She doesn't have a favourite uncle yet but she will by tomorrow." He smirked.

He left the motorhome as Christian just laughed. 

Unfortunately for Cyril, he barely saw Charlotte on race day and by the time Max, Charlotte and Emily had come over to Renault to retrieve Daniel, the little baby was half asleep and did not want to be disturbed.

"You can try again at the next race, mate. Who knows maybe you and Christian can compete over who Charlotte will walk to first." Daniel said.

Cyril sighed but was determined that Charlotte would consider him to be her favourite.

"Next race, I will buy her many honey badgers and we'll see whose the favourite then." 

The adults gazed at Charlotte who was now sleeping, cuddled up in Max's arms, head on his shoulder and clutching tightly onto a honey badger toy. Cyril knew this to be his driver's toy which had now been passed down to his daughter as it was his lucky charm which would sit in the garage. They said their goodbyes to one another as Max, Daniel and Emily left a quiet paddock.

"Don't tell Cyril but I think Christian is the favourite at the moment." Said Max.

Daniel laughed.

"We'll see how long that lasts." Replied Daniel.


End file.
